[Andy Mees]

playhead sync ganging was introduced with FCP4.0, so, if you’re working with just 2 tracks, this method will work for you.

[Andy Mees]

if you have FCP 5 then yes, absolutely … read up on multiclip.

if you have FCP 4.5 then doubleclick the lower track and then set the Playhead Sync to “Gang”
then as you move the playhead in the timeline your canvas window will show the upper track and the viewer will show the lower, you can use control v or the blade tool (b) to place cuts appropriately and then checkeboard it afterwards

[Andy Mees]

yeehah! THREADJACK ON!

you’re right 2.5 Gb is kinda magical in that FCP can’t address more than 2.5 Gb of RAM
i’d give 3 Gb the truly magical nod tho … that gives FCP all it can use and still leaves 512MB for the OS

ok, threadjack off … sorry debe 🙂

[Andy Mees]

Hi John

make sure that the viewer is showing the instance of the clip w/ filter from the timeline … its a really easy mistake to make.
just double click the clip in the timeline, then check for the filter again.

cheers
Andy

[Andy Mees]

Hi Josh

this sounds very much like you have a corrupted media file … very probably one of those three clips
try deleting one of those three from the sequence, then play back at that point … if it plays ok then you’ve found the bad clip
if not, undo the delete and then repeat the test with the next clip, and then the next … one of them will very likely be the cause of the problem.

when you’ve isolated the bad clip, then replace clips media (in this case the still) with a new copy (redigitise, recapture, recover)

hope that helps some
Andy

[Andy Mees]

i think this is an issue of capturing using the Decklink card to compress to a codec of choice … not of capturing “DV” as such.
DVCPRO50 is an excellent compressed 8 bit format with great picture quality comparable with digibeta, and a low data rate suitable for giving good performance with NLE’s.

also, realistically speaking, our DVW-A500P’s do not have a firewire interface hence capturing via firewire ios moot … does the MSW-M2000 have a firewire interface?

[Andy Mees]

Hi Hern

[Andy Mees]

the plugin is encoded into the project file when you apply it in a sequence ….

[Andy Mees]

make sure of course that your output format supports alpha channel (use animation or other that has millions of colors+)
and try exporting the file before renedering in FCP, apparently that helps.

also, just in case, remember that the background will appear black unless composited.

[Andy Mees]

hey all
wanted to post an update in case it may help someones search at a later date.

well, our HD deck, Monitor and Scope finally showed up and I got a chance to actually run some tests on the options

1) bring the footage in 16:9 at 1920×1080 (which would make it squashed) then scale up on y axis only — to 1920 x 1440

and

2) bring the footage 4:3 at 1440 x 1080, then scale up equally on both x & y axis — again to 1920 x 1440

we found the upconvert from the MSW2000 deck, in both squeeze (option1) and edge crop (option 2), was pretty darned good … considering the variable quality of the DV source, it was excellent. stretching up the squeezed version muddied it a little, but overall it was much better than expected. with the edge croped version, after scaling it up, there was no discernable difference versus the previous version.
however there was a considerable advantage in render times with option 1. it was maybe twice as fast … not surprisingly we went for option 1.

as a side note, we then treated the DV inserts with Graeme Nattress’ fabulous Film Effects … not too shaby for DV at HD res 🙂

cheers
Andy